Message from the Directors

“Where did you come from?” “How did you and Dad meet?”Perfectly normal questions, for most kids - but for us, the answer was not so easily gained.We knew a little. That our moms were Japanese, which meant
their occasionally forsaking tuna casserole and Campbell Soup and other
staples of a suburban home, for strange cuisine, obtained at some
expense and difficulty. They spoke with accents. They often approached
the task of childrearing with a grim, life-or-death intensity. Their
native land seemed so exotic, so other-worldly, it might as well have
been on the moon. But then again, the moon was only three days’ flight
away - a fraction of the time it took to sail from Yokohama to the US. And to top it off, our moms - having survived a brutal war and its unpleasant aftermath - were not inclined to revisit it.But if our moms were happy to put the past behind them, it
was a subject that continued to beckon. Kathryn began to collect
material for a book. Karen offered to illustrate it. I said, let’s make a
film.The result was a bittersweet, painfully wrought portrait
in miniature of three mothers and their daughters. It is a story of
strong, even obstinate women. It’s about emigrating, without a safety
net. About being mixed-race - when mono-racial was normal. We could not begin to cover in any serious way the small
but significant role our moms played in bringing their two countries a
little closer - but that’s a part of the story, too. Most of all, it’s
an obscure but compelling episode in modern US-Japan history.Peering into the looking glass, we’ve found, tells us as much about our countries, as it does about our own families. We hope you find it fascinating, too.